This article is about the official information in the Pokémon franchise. For the move that is called "Canon" in several languages, see Round.

Canon refers to all official and undeniable information within a general series. Originally a religious term used to refer to which scriptures written "counted" in a religion, the term has expanded to have meaning in fictional continuities as well.

In the Pokémon franchise there are several canons, usually sharing elements and concepts among them, most notably the existence of Pokémon. Aside from this and the interrelation of the various species of Pokémon (such as by evolution), these worlds can vary from one another in canon and storyline either very little or very greatly.

The Trading Card Game itself is a canon where Pokémon exist. However, in some TCG-based video games and manga, only Pokémon trading cards exist instead of actual Pokémon.

Canon is different from fanon in that, while fanon things may be mutually agreed upon by most, and possibly all, fans, they are never officially stated.

List of canons

Games

The canon of the core series consists of the following:

Anime

The canon of the Pokémon anime consists of the following:

Manga

The canon of the various Pokémon manga consists of the following:

Differences between canons

Characters that are well known in the Pokémon franchise can have vast differences between the various canons. For example, in the games, Brock is a well-known Gym Leader, the toughest Trainer in the area of Pewter City, and remains as the leader of its Gym between the time of Red/Leaf's journey and Ethan/Kris/Lyra's. In the anime, however, while he is a tough Trainer, his true calling is as a Pokémon Breeder (and later on, a Pokémon Doctor), and he took the mantle of Pewter Gym Leader only because both of his parents left on their own Pokémon journeys, leaving him in the care of the Gym and their rather large family. Differences can go much further than that, with Sabrina being a kind shrine maiden in The Electric Tale of Pikachu, a misguided young woman due to the development of her powers in the anime, and an outright villainous Team Rocket member in Pokémon Adventures.